…comes an announcement from the guys behind Grand Theft Auto:
The newest add-on to GTA IV is titled “The Ballad of Gay Tony” and sees you playing as a bodyguard for a nightclub owner (the aforementioned Tony) in fictional Liberty City. I predict it’ll turn out a mess. I fault the original GTA IV for its fruitily stereotyped gays and, worse, painting those characters as helpless, and I can’t imagine Rockstar Games having a sudden editorial change of heart in time for this add-on’s release in the fall for Xbox 360. At the very least, Microsoft can’t be called out for banning the use of the word “gay” this time.
um Sam, wake up!
GTA IV had you protecting gays in some missions.
I guess you forgot about that?
Now Dan will freak out and have 25 more slog topics about this today either way.
Damn, when I saw the pic, I thought this was a joke.
GTAIV also had a mission where you lured a gay guy on the date and had the option of shooting him in the face (with a firearm). The guy was targeted for death, and you baited him out with an online dating ad.
But I give Rockstar credit. They forced Microsoft to put the word “gay” (a term it is not comfortable using anywhere in its Xbox LIVE service) out there front and center.
I went to see “I love you, man” with my son last night.
I thought it was funny from start to finish.
There were a multitude of personalities representing gay men ranging from a cool guy to more “excitable” type.
What do you guys think?
Bash or Smash?
I work in the games industry so maybe I’m biased, but I don’t see the big deal.
As long as the stereotypes aren’t insulting, we should embrace that instead of homosexuality being sold as “sin” or (worse) hidden in the shadows of America our culture is putting fags in everything. We need more people to know gay couples and have gay people in their families, so it follows that introducing a certain audience to gay people through the medium of video games isn’t particularly damaging to the cause of equal rights in this country.
I’m at my least discriminatory when I’m playing GTA… Everyone is equally worthless and will eventually get run over or gunned down.
GTA players don’t give a fuck, actual homophobes or not.
GTA is mob satire, and since gays *are* stereotyped pretty mercilessly in that kind of conservative enclave, it makes sense for Rockstar to work it into the satire. They also stereotype prostitutes, mobsters, rock stars, gangbangers, black people, and whatever else.
If Tony is a decent guy being threatenned by the KKK or Mormons, and you get to shoot bigots in the face, I would play it.
Imagine a dumb hick calling Tony a faggot, and you get to beat the hick to death with tire iron.
A boy can dream, I guess.
Tony will probably be a mincing helpless subhuman freak.
Everyone on the xbox forums seems to think this is great, or a joke.
I felt the same way with the 1967 update of “Mystery Date” when the dud suddenly seemed gayer.
I’m still waiting for GTA: Emerald City.
“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home.”